Royal Caribbean: Oasis of the Seas cruises selling like gangbusters

[mercedes]

It's been a tough year for Royal Caribbean, no doubt about it. But there's at least one bright spot at the company: The pending arrival of the much-ballyhooed Oasis of the Seas.

Demand for the groundbreaking, 5,400-passenger cruise ship, scheduled to debut in December, has been incredibly strong, despite the economic downturn, and the prices the vessel is commanding are well above what the line is getting for its other ships, company executives said today.

"The level of bookings and the pricing for Oasis' first ten months is very exciting," Royal Caribbean CEO Adam Goldstein told Wall Street analysts during a conference call to discuss first quarter earnings. "In fact, the prices that Oasis is commanding . . . are really quite remarkable."

In announcing it had lost $36.2 million during the first quarter, Royal Caribbean said it has been forced to discount voyages on most of its ships heavily in recent months to keep bookings flowing in for the year. But cruises on the much-awaited Oasis of the Seas -- the largest ship ever built -- have been an exception.

Later in the conference call, in a response to a question from a Wall Street analyst on whether the line will be discounting voyages on the ship as its debut approaches, Goldstein didn't rule out the possibility. But he indicated it's unlikely there would be across the board price slashing for the ship anytime soon.

"If you look at her performance on a whole, it's really quite spectacular at this point," Goldstein said.